Parenting Lectures

As a mother, and now pregnant with our second child, I get these "helpful parenting tips" from everyone. Their way of raising kids is the right way, and I NEED to know it or else my children will turn out terribly. I do listen, and nod, and I am polite when they finish, but really? Children today go through so many different things than say the children of the 60 year old woman standing in line behind me. Sure I bet a little brandy on a child's gums won't kill them, but I'd rather use something like Orajel that was made for children's gums instead of her husband's favorite drink. And if I don't feel like spanking my child to discipline her, that is my choice. Do not tell me I am doing something wrong unless I am jeopardizing my childs saftey and well-being. Counting to 3 and putting her on time out serves the same purpose without terrifying her.
My favorite lecture was one I recieved again today while at the doctors for an infected toe. How it went from my ingrown toenail to me breastfeeding, I have no idea. I wasn't even wearing a low cut top. But, regardless, the male doctor wanted to make sure I was going to. I thought he was going to make me sign in blood at one point.
Since I breastfed Tori, I was definitely planning on doing it again. It helped me loose the extra weight, helped me bond with Tori, and was a heck of a lot cheaper than buying $10 cans of formula. BUT, my issue wasn't the helpful suggestion of breastfeeding, it was the fact that a male, who cannot, and will not breastfeed a child was all but forcing me to tell him my unborn child will also be breastfed. Since I have gone through the process before, I am familiar with how big a pain in the butt it can be. Not only do your nips hurt for weeks in the beginning, but if you are unfortunate like me, even months later, when your body should only be producing the amount the child can drink, it's not. If I didn't wear some sort of absorbent cotton pad in my bra day and night, I would have been that woman everyone laughs at on tv sitcoms soaking through her shirt in public. The worst was at night when Tori began sleeping through the whole 8+ hours. It meant I had to have sore, HUGE, boobs from when I fell asleep until she woke up. Not fun. Especially since if I laid on my side, it meant I would leak everywhere. And forget laying on your stomach unless you are bone dry. They are too huge and swollen to allow you to get comfortable there, plus, once again, you leak.
Anyway, what I am trying to get at here is that men should not have the right, even holding a medical license, to tell women what they should do with their bodies. If you can't breastfeed, or choose not to, that is your choice. Formula these days has many of the same nutrients in it that breastmilk does, and formula children will grow up to lead healthy and successful lives like any breastfed child. And berating a poor woman to breastfeed only makes her feel that much worse if for example, she medically has an issue that makes her unable to, or because of work schedules cannot pump milk during the day.
So, to all you men out there who feel the need to tell women to breastfeed: don't, until you have had to do the same. No one likes a hypocrite.